


The Way We Weren't

by cheshirecatstrut



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-26 01:50:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14990162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheshirecatstrut/pseuds/cheshirecatstrut
Summary: Mac's upset about the whole switched-at-birth thing. She gets a strange and unexpected pep talk.





	The Way We Weren't

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written as a birthday gift to princessclarke for the VMHQ birthday club.

Cindy MacKenzie’s been upset about the whole switched-at-birth fiasco all week—and that was BEFORE she got a load of the Sinclairs’ massive library, and the much-cooler-than-hyperactive-Ryan sister in it. The more she sees how much she and Lauren have in common, the worse she starts to feel.

They’ve just begun discussing the Westing Game and respective opinions thereof when the door flies open, and a disheveled, probably drunk Logan Echolls stumbles through. He hides behind the frame for a moment, peering out, then shuts it with a sigh and rests his forehead on the wood. Spins, and jerks in startlement upon realizing he’s not alone.

“Let me guess,” he drawls, fiddling with the cuff of his dress shirt but making no attempt to button it. “Madison’s pursuing you both without mercy too?”

“She would be,” Mac says, “if she knew I was still here. But she told me to leave–and I guess it hasn’t occurred to her I might disobey?”

“She doesn’t have to chase me,” Lauren puts in, glum. “She knows where I live. But if she’s after YOU, that’s my cue to leave. She’s already yelled at me twice for having the nerve to exist during her party, and I don’t want to deal when I’m at the good part of my book.”

Logan bends sideways to peer at the cover. “Ah, the Westing Game. Solid, but I prefer Agatha Christie.”

“Okaaaay, noted.” Lauren favors Mac with the faintest lift of brows, probably because Logan Echolls is speaking to her. “I should, you know, vamoose. But it was really nice to meet you, Mac. I hope we see each other again sometime.”

“Ditto.” Mac smiles; she really does like this kid. “And just FYI, I second the Christie recommendation. I’m a sucker for an unexpected twist—the villain turning out to be the hero, etcetera.”

Lauren grins, and with a last uncertain look at Logan, exits.

Seemingly oblivious to drama, he locks the door, then plops into the vacated chair with a slow exhale. “I wish I could make Madison angry just by existing,” he says. “I asked why she didn’t pay the surgeon extra to take the stick out of her ass, since she was having an overhaul anyway. But she just brushed insult aside and kept on flirting.”

“I have noticed she’s relentless.” Mac folds her arms, amused in spite of herself. “If you want her to stop chasing you, I recommend not being famous or rich.”

“Perish the thought.” Logan fumbles in his shirt pocket, extracts two lollipops. Offers Mac one and unwraps the other, tucking it into his cheek with his tongue. “How’d you get trapped in her web, anyway? I’ve seen you coding in the computer lab, when I visit to make school-approved searches. I wouldn’t guess this’d be your scene. God knows it’s not mine, and I’ll attend almost any party.”

Mac tilts her head back against the chair, studying him critically. “Can you keep a secret?”

He turns just his face to look at her, and though his cheeks are flushed with booze, his gaze misses nothing. “I’m like Capone’s vault. You have no idea.”

“I hired Veronica Mars to find my birth parents,” she admits. “Because I’m as unlike my adopted family as it’s possible to be. And it turns out…” She takes a deep breath. “Madison and I were…switched at birth. Her folks are actually MY folks. So I came here to scope out my family tree…and after meeting my biological sister, I feel even more bitter.”

Logan shakes his head. “Only in Neptune.” He shifts the lollipop to the other side of his mouth without touching the stick. “And on a tangential note, is there any dirty secret Veronica CAN’T unearth?”

“She’s missed at least one of mine,” Mac says, wry. “Or maybe she dug it up but didn’t care.”

“Well there’s something else we have in common.” He hooks a footstool with one toe and drags it closer, crosses his feet atop. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“Mac,” she tells him, gazing at his brand-new, expensive Sketchers—he’s drawn all over the soles. “Like the computer. I hope you don’t expect me not to recognize you in return.”

He rolls his eyes. “Thanks to TMZ, people in Croatia recognize me. But points to you for not playing coy.”

“Coy is…not my wheelhouse,” Mac admits. “My go-to’s are dry humor and avoidance.”

“Then we should get along just fine.” He removes the sucker from his mouth with a pop, inspects the remaining distance to the tootsie roll. Points it at her. “Listen, Mac. I have no clue what your adoptive family’s like…”

“NASCAR, processed meat products, State Park camping holidays and country music,” she interjects, unwrapping her own candy.

He makes a pained expression. “Be that as it may. They’ve got to be more functional than this clan, somehow. Because they produced a decent mostly-grown human, whereas the Sinclairs raised MADISON.”

“But she wound up with so much MONEY,” Mac says wistfully. “Madison’s been to the Louvre. She summered in Italy, while I summered delivering pizzas at Cho’s.”

“Money isn’t everything,” he says, and he’s pretty good at dry undertones, too. “Trust me on this. There isn’t much I wouldn’t give to have been switched at birth myself. And if it’s not painfully obvious, based on Madison’s quest to throw my friend over for me, I’m the boy who has it all.”

“I honestly can’t picture you as an Average Joe.” Mac tastes her Mystery Sucker and finds it’s cherry. “Seems like your name BELONGS on a marquee, backlit and in all caps.”

“I’m just famous because I’m related to actors,” he says. “And who wants that? The only performance the public expects from me involves on-camera meltdowns and mug shots. Personally, I was sick of the attention by age seven…which is when I decided to run away and join the circus.”

“But you were foiled by your lack of big-top connections?” she asks, amused.

He points, clicks and winks. “THAT’S the family I should’ve been switched-at-birth into…carnies. I could be training lions right now. Or triple-flipping nightly from a tinsel-festooned trapeze.”

“Now lion-tamer I can actually see,” she says. “You operant-conditioned Dick Casablancas to quit harassing on command. The King of the Jungle ought to be a piece of cake.”

He grins at her in genuine amusement, and she begins to see how he kept Lilly Kane coming back for more. Maybe Veronica hates the guy so much these days because she knows…if she relents enough to earn his smiles, she’ll crack.

“Insightful!” he says. “You’re right, dumb animals are clearly my forte. Maybe I should have been switched at birth into a farm family. 4-H, cow tipping, God and football, the whole nine yards. I can actually throw a decent spiral—but any sport that might hospitalize me is strictly verboten chez moi.”

“When you put it that way,” Mac muses. “I guess my life could have been worse. I might be living in a trailer right now with Pentecostal snake handlers.”

“OR your adoptive parents could be televangelists,” he muses, crunching down decisively on his candy. “And make you tap dance on national TV in Shirley Temple curls.”

Mac laughs in spite of herself. “I still want to see the Louvre.”

“It’s not like I’ll ever have to perform labor for pay,” he says. “But I hear computer savant is a high-salary profession. And anybody with the brains to pull off that purity test scam could earn enough to visit Paris in a week.”

“How did you…” she asks and he waves off the question with a smirk.

“Come on.” He settles lower in his chair, flicking his lollipop stick into the fire. “Who else in our school could have or would have? Cassidy, maybe, but he doesn’t need the cash—whereas you showed up the day after chaos reigned driving a new car. Don’t worry though…Capone’s vault, remember? Besides, I laughed my ASS off when Kimmy and Pam got theirs.”

“That was all Veronic…” she begins. But trails off when a key turns in the lock, and Madison flings open the door.

“Logan, THERE you are!” Mac’s usurper poses with a hand up on the lintel, in a way designed to maximize cleavage. Then she gets a load of Mac, and her come-hither expression sours. “What the hell are YOU still doing here?”

_Enjoying a lollipop?_  she prepares to quip, but Logan cuts her off. “Entertaining me,” he drawls. “Because, and I say this with all sincerity, prior to running into Mac here I was never more bored.”

“You know I’d be HAPPY to entertain you,” Madison purrs. “All you had to do was ask! As for her, though, her friends who ALSO weren’t invited have been wandering around searching. The three of them need to join forces and LEAVE before their uncoolness ruins everything.”

“Madison,” Logan says, with a sigh that belies the glitter in his eyes. “If you’re so uninvested in Dick you’re offering to ‘entertain’ other guys, I have no reason to tolerate you. So just…shoo. Ride off on your broom. We live on the San Andreas Fault—a house ready to fall on you shouldn’t be hard to find.”

“Ugh honestly! It’s my BIRTHDAY!” Madison huffs like she’s offended, but seems strangely unfazed. She turns to flounce away, calling over her shoulder, “Have another drink or something. I’ll catch you later when your temper’s sweeter.”

“That would be never,” Logan mutters, not watching her go. “I’m as unlikely to turn sugary as they come.”

“Listen, I appreciate you sticking up for me,” Mac tells him once Madison’s gone, and actually means it. Because who knew Logan Echolls had a chivalrous side? “But she’s right, I really should leave. If Veronica hangs around 09’ers too long, who knows what might happen?”

“You showed up here with VERONICA?” Logan closes his eyes and tilts his head back; stands, wobbling slightly, and grips the chair-back for balance. “Then as your sort-of sister said, that’s my cue. If the diminutive detective finds me chatting with her friend, no doubt she’ll frame me for something.”

He tips an imaginary hat to her, murmurs, “And just as a footnote, processed meat products aren’t so bad.” Then saunters out like he owns the place, and every single person in it.

Mac smiles and shakes her head, because life keeps getting weirder…but strangely, she’s not upset anymore. Then, with a last, regretful look at the glorious library, she gets up and leaves it behind. She’s got to find her friends, before Veronica tases someone or Wallace gets into the punch. And there’s a shelf full of mystery novels waiting at home.


End file.
